Eagles see off Wildcats to reach play-off semi-finals

NEWCASTLE Eagles will play Leicester Riders in the BBL play-off semi-finals after a convincing 194-157 aggregate win over North-East rivals Durham Wildcats.

Eagles went into yesterday’s second leg at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre with a 22-point lead after Friday night’s 97-75 first leg win at Sport Central and despite an impressive performance from Danny Huffor, who led the scoring with 28 points and four rebounds, Lee Davie’s men couldn’t catch the BBL Champions.

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For Fab Flournoy’s team, Darius Defoe scored 22 with five rebounds, while Paul Gause and Malik Cooke also made big contributions with 20 and 19 points respectively.

Eagles’ Scott Martin grabbed 14 rebounds, as did Wildcats’ Ralph Bucci, but it is the men from Newcastle who progress to the semi-finals.

They will face reigning play-off champions Leicester Riders in the last four after they came through their quarter-final second leg with Cheshire Phoenix to win 77-56 (165-132 on aggragate).

The pair met in the BBL Cup final earlier in the season, which Riders won, but Eagles won all three championship games in the regulation season.

The first leg will take place on Thursday, May 1, in Loughborough. The home leg will be held on Sunday, May 4 at Sport Central.

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